Speech by Mr Eric Chua, Parliamentary Secretary for Culture, Community and Youth & Social and Family
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SPEECH BY MR ERIC CHUA, PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY FOR CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND YOUTH & SOCIAL AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT AT THE COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY DEBATE 2021, 8 MARCH 2021 Introduction 1 2020 was a challenging year. COVID-19 forced us to change the way we live, work and play. What does not change, however, is our commitment to building a caring, cohesive and confident society. The pandemic brought to the fore the critical role of the People’s Association and I note Mr Leong Mun Wai’s related comment. Role of the People’s Association 2 As a statutory board, PA’s mission is to build up the cohesiveness of our population – a reserve of social capital and goodwill that is built on trust between people and the Government. This is accumulated during peacetime so we are in a good position when crises, such as the one we are going through now, hit us. 3 We didn’t know when the pandemic will strike. But when it did, PA swung into action: Four nationwide mask distribution exercises to date; hand sanitiser distribution; food delivery services for the vulnerable, especially during the Circuit Breaker period; TraceTogether token distribution; and most recently, CCs operating as Community Vaccination Centres, reaching out to seniors and others to be vaccinated. 4 A year ago, I am not sure any of us had “pandemic response” written in our workplans. But the networks, trust and bonds painstakingly built by PA and its volunteers over the years has allowed us to respond cohesively, quickly and as one community, during the pandemic. This is the critical difference between our response here in Singapore and the responses we see elsewhere in the world. 5 To achieve PA’s mission, the PA needs to be properly resourced. Its $796M budget comprises: $207M development budget mainly to build and upgrade community clubs. The remaining $589M is for operating expenditure. It is however, not very meaningful, as member suggests to compare operating budget to headcount, as the $589M includes both manpower as well as other operating expenditure. And much unlike other agencies like IRAS or GovTech, PA manages a whole host of community facilities all across Singapore, fully manned by fulltime staff. And this includes 108 CCs, and 665 RC centres, which needs regular maintenance as well as other operating costs. 6 PA’s budget allows it to carry on with its peacetime mission of providing our people – in their thousands, every day – with activities that enrich them and which they enjoy. It also enables the building of the networks and communities – the relationships of trust. 7 As a former grassroots leader myself – for 15 years, in fact – I am very proud of the work done by PA and its grassroots. As answered before in this chamber, the political affiliations of volunteers are not relevant to our consideration in the volunteers’ participation in PA, because the PA’s missions is fundamentally focused on community building. So the social capital we have built up over time, the harmony we enjoy within our society, taking care of our residents, including our seniors and the vulnerable ones amongst us – the value of all these, I would say to this house, are not easily quantifiable. 8 PA’s role in peacetime and in crisis are inseparable. In many countries, people are divorced from the political and administrative machinery. They have difficulties knowing, much less understanding what goes on. Government is a distant, sometimes even alien, entity. In Singapore, we want to explain our policies and provide channels for communication between Government and the people, because we believe the Government must be connected to the people. 9 But why? Because we believe nothing can be achieved if we don’t get buy-in from our people. Singapore works only when Government and people, businesses, unions, and communities, all come together. PA exists to provide the social glue, without which Singapore would have gotten nowhere. 10 The networks and bonds of trust that enable the PA to perform its role in peacetime are also what enable the PA to play a vital role in a crisis. 11 When a major Government policy is announced, PA, together with grassroots Advisors, goes to the ground and explains the policy. This includes conveying unpopular policies, hearing directly from residents about their concerns, so we can allow them to voice their concerns, allowing Government to tweak and adapt policies, if needed. These relationships of trust and comradeship that we have built – bit by bit, through good times and bad – are what enabled us to respond as one Singapore during the pandemic. This is what the late Mr S Rajaratnam meant by a “democracy of deeds”. 12 The Member can rest assured that PA’s budget we have set aside has been put to good use. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and there is no doubt that the PA has proven its worth in the past year. Building a caring society through strengthening the digital capabilities of the charity sector 13 Let me next talk about our charities. 14 Charities play an important role in our society by ensuring that no one is left behind. Mr Mohd Fahmi Bin Aliman asked how we are helping our charities to be digitally ready. 15 MCCY is working together with the Tote Board and NCSS to develop a first ever technology hub for non-profit organisations to accelerate the sector’s digital transformation. 16 As a ‘one-stop shop’ for key Info-Communication Technology (or ICT) services, this tech hub for NPOs will avail funding and ICT consultancy services to charities from the “Arts and Heritage”, “Community”, “Education”, “Health”, “Sports” and “Others” sectors. This is over and above support provided by NCSS under the Tech-and-Go! initiative, and we hope to make this available by July 2021. 17 Charities can leverage several schemes under this technology hub, including technical advisory, digital implementation consultancy, digital strategy planning, and the adoption of large-scale specialised ICT solutions. Building a cohesive society through sports 18 Let me next move on to sports. Sustaining Sports Participation 19 Mr Xie Yao Quan and Ms Hany Soh asked about how we plan to sustain sports participation. 20 Under our Children and Youth Sport Framework, SportSG is scaling up the Nurture Kids programme in all pre-schools. We are on track to provide all pre-schools with access to the Nurture Kids Train-the-Trainer initiative by 2022. 21 SportSG is also on track to partner the National Institute of Early Childhood Development (NIEC) to build the capabilities of their lecturers through a co-developed SportSG-NIEC Train-the-Trainer programme. This will equip early childhood educators with the knowledge to develop children’s fundamental movement skills. 22 SportSG’s Active Parents movement has also seen more than 10,000 parents come onboard since the launch in April last year. During the circuit breaker period, the initiative helped parents stay active with their children through online resources and stay-home virtual activities. 23 With the resumption of physical programmes, the Active Parents School Holiday Programme was introduced to provide more opportunities for parent and child to participate in sporting activities together and encourage parents to take on an active role in guiding their child through the activities. I’m looking forward to taking part in those activities with my 8-month-old son in time to come. 24 For working adults, SportSG will launch the Active Health Corporate Playbook in mid-2021. The Playbook guides companies through the principles of health and wellness, organisational development, and evidence-based coaching to help corporates adopt sport and physical activity as an organisational strategy. 25 While we have programmes in place, it is also important that we ensure access to our sports facilities. Mr Faisal Manap asked how we are improving our facilities booking system. 26 SportSG actively monitors feedback on the system through channels such as SportSG’s feedback hotline, the system’s technical helpdesk as well as app store reviews. 27 In 2019, SportSG rolled out version 2.0 of its booking app and regularly releases updates in response to public feedback, as well as to keep up with app developments. SportSG has also been working to finetune booking policies and stepping up efforts to combat scripting and on-selling activities. 28 For instance, SportSG has enhanced on-site enforcement measures, where hirers of ActiveSG facilities are required to be present or have their booking cancelled. It has also enhanced system measures to deter scripting, and imposed stricter penalties against errant members, including account suspension for those found to have abused the system. Just last month alone, 105 accounts were suspended and 735 bookings cancelled after investigations. Uplifting confidence and pride as a sports sector Supporting the Sports Industry 29 Mr Mark Chay shared that visitor-ships at sports and fitness centres have not returned to pre-COVID levels and he suggested that sports and fitness be considered a tier-two sector. 30 Since the progressive opening of the sports sector in June last year, the sector has benefited from the Sports Resilience Package (SRP) that was launched in October 2020. 31 To-date, close to 100 businesses have benefited from an Operating Grant under the SRP that covers up to 25% of their total operating expenses (capped at $15,000 per month) for up to six months. 32 Mr Chay may be pleased to note that this year, we will provide more support through the enhancement of the SRP. 33 Let me explain, to provide short-term financial support to critical sports businesses, SportSG will extend the SRP Operating Grant from April to December 2021.